In Rehearsals …

The Coliseum rehearsal room has transformed once again, this time it has taken the form of a fourth floor office within a faceless police station. This is in preparation for the next Coliseum production, the absurdist comedy, Accidental Death of an Anarchist. It is no lie when I say I have been looking forward to this one from the minute we confirmed the show.

The story is one inspired by true events, specifically the death of Italian road worker Giuseppe Pinelli who fell, or perhaps was thrown to his death from a fourth floor window whilst in custody in a Milan police station. The event itself does not form the crux of the play which instead focuses on an absurd and hilarious re-enactment of events at the hands of a mysterious and slightly unhinged unnamed man.

The play is an extraordinary piece of writing from Nobel Prize in Literature winning writer, Dario Fo. It is a classic in every sense of the word and testament to this is the fact that even though it was written in 1970, the story can still be used to represent contemporary themes and transposed into any location, for our production we have relocated from the sepia tinged fashion capital of Europe to a present day local setting.

Nine years after it was originally written it was translated into English before its first British performance in 1980 at Wyndham’s Theatre, London. The version we have here has been adapted somewhat by brilliant playwright, and Coronation Street actress, Deborah McAndrew. Ensuring the show is up-to-the minute the cast will add topical inserts into the show to keep the audience on their toes as the action surges along, twisting and turning with great pace. It really is a huge amount of fun and I can’t wait for curtain up on this one.

Now, back to rehearsals and the matter of how to fit a grown man inside a filing cabinet…